The worst thing that happened to Palos Verdes on Thursday night actually happened on Tuesday.

That was when libero Grant Delgado injured his Achilles’ tendon, ending his season. The rest of the Sea Kings followed in a 25-15, 25-21, 25-20 loss to Newport Harbor in the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division I playoffs at Palos Verdes.

Newport Harbor (20-9), executing its offense flawlessly at times under the direction of UCLA-bound setter Jackson Carmack, proved to be too much for Palos Verdes (26-9), which concluded the best season in school history.

“This is probably going to be the best team we have for a long time and it was fun to be part of it,” junior opposite hitter Ryan Marcil said.

The Sea Kings, who finished second to Mira Costa in the Bay League, sputtered at the start but rallied to throw a scare into the Sailors at the close of the second game. Palos Verdes led most of the third game until Newport Harbor hitter Cody Caldwell took over.

Caldwell, who had 24 kills, broke a 20-20 tie with a quick hit from the middle. A slip on the floor cost Palos Verdes the next point, Caldwell served consecutive aces and then pounded from the left side to send his team to the quarterfinals.

It was an impressive hitting night for Caldwell, who was going against the 6-foot-7 Marcil, 6-9 Clay Paullin, 6-8 Jackson Belcher and 6-5 Kyle Rehkemper.

“They’re a really good team. It crushes them not having their libero, who’s just an unbelievable player,” Newport Harbor coach Dan Glenn said. “They’ve got all the height and the blocking and he just controls the match in the backcourt. That’s a shame he didn’t get to play.

“Cody finished this one off great. He’s hitting against two D-I (college) type kids, 6-8 and 6-9, so he’s going to get blocked. I was really proud of the way he bounced back and kind of hung in there and he was playing great at the end there for us.”

It took more than a game for Palos Verdes to adjust to jump serve after jump serve, but the Sea Kings used a six-point run, with two blocks from Marcil, to pull within 21-20. But they never pulled even.

“We didn’t have our starting libero so we couldn’t really pass their jump serves,” Marcil said. “We started out pretty bad. We were making mistakes and weren’t flowing right, then we caught on a little bit in the second game. We held it down for the third game, but then we kind of blew it because we couldn’t pass.”

“They did a great job controlling the ball,” Palos Verdes coach Patrick Lynch said. “They served well and we had a hard time with the serving and our passing wasn’t really that sharp, but we did what we could with it. We were still able to run the middle, we were still able to get the balls to the outside.

“We were in a fight and the guys did an incredible job competing with a great team. That’s a big blow to your team when one of your best passers goes out.”

But the thrill of the chase for Palos Verdes was worth it as the program begins to build.

“It was our best season; we had 26 wins and we’d never even come close to that before, so it was a lot fun,” Lynch said. “It was a great honor to be part of this program.

“We know what we need to do to be top contenders in Division I and we’ll work at it.”